You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
Cheryl and Eileen explore different topics around the limited time we have on this earth to create a fully layered life. Because...You Only Go Once!
You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
DeWayne Gordon's Philosophy on Money, Time, and Adventure
Have you ever stood at the crossroads of life, pondering the direction your financial future should take? Our latest guest, the visionary DeWayne Gordon, has not only stood at such a juncture but has paved a new path entirely with his innovative venture, 40 AM Capital. From his modest beginnings to civil service and beyond, DeWayne's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of aligning one's career with personal passions. As we explore this rich narrative, you'll find yourself inspired by DeWayne's reflective moment in 2019 that birthed a financial tool aimed at empowering individuals towards fiscal independence.
It's not every day that you encounter a financial planning tool that can revolutionize the way you perceive money and time. DeWayne unveils an Excel marvel that is more than just a budget tracker; it's a roadmap to financial independence, complete with scenario-based forecasting and an insightful financial independence spectrum. This conversation takes us through the nuanced challenges and triumphs within the black community's pursuit of financial autonomy, breaking down persistent myths about renting versus owning, and addressing the undercurrents of financial trauma. It's a tapestry of fiscal education interwoven with authentic stories of overcoming systemic barriers to success.
Lastly, we're whisked away on an adventure through the Pacific Northwest as DeWayne shares his zeal for hiking and photography, offering a much-needed reminder that life's broader escapades are integral to our well-being. Discover 'DeWayne math,' a unique philosophy on time management that empowers one to maximize every moment, and learn how self-care is not just essential for our own prosperity but crucial in our ability to mentor and uplift others. This episode is not merely a discussion; it's an invitation to redefine your relationship with time and money, to embrace life's adventures, and to chart a course towards living by design. Join us, and let's journey together through DeWayne Gordon's multifaceted narrative of growth, balance, and the pursuit of one's true calling.
Hi, I'm Dwayne Gordon. I hope, when you look back at your life, you live life by design, because you're only gold once.
Speaker 2:Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. We are, I'm so excited. I don't know, I've had a rough week. I'll be honest. I'm just going to level set the group here tonight, but as kind of soon as I sign on and I see Cheryl's face and Dwayne, it's been too long. But I am so excited to be here tonight and have this conversation. We are kicking off another episode of you Only Go Once. I'm Aileen Grimes. I'm here with my amazing, wonderful friend and co-host, cheryl Contafio, and Cheryl is going to introduce our guest tonight. Cheryl, off to you.
Speaker 3:Thanks, aileen. They say life is a journey, and Dwayne has taken that adage to heart. A self-proclaimed sporadic entrepreneur, dwayne Gordon has dabbled in a couple of ventures here and there, each one adding a unique thread to the tapestry of his experience. Currently, dwayne is in the process of launching his most exciting venture, 40 AM Capital, which is a financial services business that is geared towards changing the way people of color view and engage with their personal finances.
Speaker 3:When the entrepreneurial spirit takes a breather, dwayne dons the hat of a mentor, guiding others through the wilderness of their lives and ambitions. His wisdom, gleaned from the successes and stumbles of his own life experiences, is a valuable compass for those seeking to navigate the twists and turns of life. But wait, there's more. In a surprising turn of events, dwayne found himself in the world of civil service, proving that sometimes the most unplanned paths can lead to the most fulfilling destinations. Dwayne brings his unique blend of creativity, problem solving and a touch of calmness to the world of bureaucracy, transforming the city of Philadelphia one project at a time. This year, dwayne is gearing up to getting back to hiking. Unintended hiking is the one thing that allows him to unwind, unplug, exhale and fully enjoy the outdoors. Along with hiking, dwayne will look to get back to his other passion, which is photography of nature. Everybody, please, welcome Dwayne. Gordon Dwayne, we're so happy to have you here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm happy to be here, so I'm looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness. So disclosure for our audience is that Dwayne, Eileen and I all used to work together and it was a blast. Like we always had fun. You know, Dwayne got to experience my driving once when we went to visit the college.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so often for you, that was a nightmare.
Speaker 1:I still talk about that.
Speaker 3:I'm sure you do. Yeah, the poor man. So also disclosure, dwayne is like six foot 100 and for people that are my height, which is like five foot four and a good day, he's very tall. So the poor man got to my car and his knees were up around his ears so, and you know, he had to deal with my driving on top of that. So it was just, it was an experience. It was an experience, but we reconnected through a mutual friend and he kind of shared with us that you were going to put together this new venture that we're so excited to talk about. So can you give us a little more about 40 am capital, where the whole idea came from and where it's going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So. This all started back in 2019. In 2019. So the end of every year, I normally just spend time reflecting on how did I do that year Right? So look at professionally, personally and even financially. And so when I got to the financial part, it was more about you know, did I reach my goals? Did I really help anyone financially, whether it's with my own money or helping them think through their own financial issues? And I didn't. I missed the target Right.
Speaker 1:And so once in 2020, I thought like, how can I help people? Right, and I'm not rich, but I'm financially comfortable. And so I want to see how I could leverage my money and help those around me. And so I was like, well, let me just give people loans, you know. And so the idea popped into my head. You know, I shared with a couple of friends. They're like are you crazy? You never get your money back, you know. And so I just felt otherwise, and so I just figured that if I put some rules around it and so forth, you know it could work. This was before the pandemic, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know so, going to January, I reached out, you know, to a couple of friends, a few family members, and told them what I was looking to do. And no takers crickets right, and so it's like well, you know, maybe that wasn't a dumb idea.
Speaker 1:And about two days later I had a cousin reach out and say, hey, were you serious about that? Like, yeah, long story short, gave her a loan and it took off, right. And I started getting the text messages and the phone calls and even though the folks who initially reached out, they are financially, you know, in a better situation than a lot of other people, it was just the life stuff that happens, right, you know, two flat tire, the leaking roof, you know whatever it might be where they didn't want to dip into emergency funds or whatever it might be, right. So that took off and so I kept it simple Flat interest rate. You know 12 months, 18 months. You know I did a loan like the smallest loan is like $500 up to $10,000.
Speaker 1:And what made, what made the whole thing unique was I create the term so that it made it easy for people to repay me, versus saying, hey, something happened, I can't pay you back. So what I did was I said, okay, I'm not going to tell you how much to pay me back every month. Right, you have a 12 month or 18 month loan. You figure it out right, because you know your budget better than I do. So you can use the entire you know timeframe of the loan. I didn't set a date for them either, right? So if I say, cheryl, you know, pay me back 300 on the first of every month, well, you probably have a mortgage, your car payments, your insurance and so forth, right, but somebody's not going to get paid, right? So I didn't want it to be me, so I told Nick and figured that out. I also gave them, like you know, these opportunities of grace where, if something comes up, doesn't matter what it is, just give the heads up. I'm not going to give you a late fee or penalize you or anything. Just tell me ahead of time, right. And so the good thing about that was was that when people took it at the end of that particular you know option, if they said, hey, I need to miss January's payment, that's fine. I didn't tell them. You know how the payments were going to stack up on them. They automatically said I'll double up with my payments the following month, and they all did, right.
Speaker 1:So, all of that being said, it started to work. I didn't realize how much work it would be Right, because I had all these requests coming in and everything was rolling and so I started with one system to track it and it worked for me. But my shorter other people are like what are you doing? This doesn't make any sense. I'm like, yeah, you're right. So go back in and and refining, and refining to where I have a full flex system now that I designed in Excel that actually works Right, I'm able to track it. You know per individual, everyone has, you know account number. You know everyone has a setup, track payments, the dates, all of that stuff. I mean put notes in it and so forth.
Speaker 1:I invested about 52,000 and some change of my own money and so today I've been able to give out about 186,000 in loans because I've not taken any money out. I've kept flipping over and over and over again, and so I've had repeat borrowers, I've had a few new borrowers, but here's what's interesting. So in all of that I had a referral program and so I said well, you know, if you refer someone, if you are a good borrower where you paid your loan back in full on time, no issues, you get to refer someone and and if you refer that person, they pay their loan back, you know, in a timely manner. No issues, whatever. You know you get half of the interest that I, that I I receive. Oh well, one person took me up on that option. Everyone said I don't want to mess this up, so I'll get to sit on that pocket, right, yeah, so I was glad to see that people were thoughtful about that.
Speaker 1:Now here we are, you know, in the pandemic during this time, and this came in handy for a lot of people, right, and it helped them out in so many, so many ways. And so what I found is that in the first pass right, as far as you know, their first loan they used it to get out of a buying or pay off debt or whatever it might be. The second time was how can I get ahead? Right, and so now they were putting money into their home to like fix it up or whatever, right, or you know one person, he started business. So it was interesting to see how getting out of a buying put them in a different frame of mind to do other things by leveraging other people's money, right. So to this date, I've issued about I don't know what I have it up. Let me really quick not tell you I have issued 53 loans, no defaults. On average, people pay the loans back in 10.8 months, so pretty much ahead of schedule.
Speaker 3:That's incredible yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I've generated a 45.24% return on the investment. It works now going into 40 AM to answer your question so that was the genesis of it. So, going back into the early 2000s, when I was in finance in the county, people assumed I was a CPA or a controller.
Speaker 1:I'm like, no, just a lowly budget tech, can you help me with my finances? I'm like, no, not really. I kept getting these requested. So here I was doing budgets for the hospital that I worked at. So I was like, well, what's the difference between a multi-million dollar budget versus a few thousand dollars? So I started doing budgets for people. So that took off. I didn't know anything about side business at that time. I'm 23, 24 years old, so just doing it, I wasn't charging anyone. Then it got to the point where I was like I have to make something out of this. So that morphed into my first and into being an entrepreneur. So I started my consulting business and it was just get around helping people with budgets or putting them on budgets and things of that nature. So I ended up getting burned out because I had too many clients and not enough time.
Speaker 1:One of the things I learned along the way is that people are very sensitive and private about their financial information. It doesn't matter that they're talking to me one-on-one. It was like why do you want that information? I'm like I'm excited to do your budget, but why do you want it? It's like, okay, you don't have to give it to me, but your budget won't be accurate.
Speaker 1:So, now, over the years, from about 2004, 2005, I was directly doing that here and there. So when I started the lending side of things, I noticed that they had everything in their head as far as their budget, their numbers, and that's the worst place to have your personal financial numbers in your head. So when I started talking to individual borrowers about, hey, why borrow money to do this? Have you thought about doing that? Instead, it was like oh, it makes a lot of sense, I'll give you a loan. That doesn't make sense for when you're using this manner. So then I said, well, how can I help people help themselves? Because before, when I first did it, it was more in the line of well, something came up, so I can't finish the budget, but I'll get back to it. It may never do, or it would be well. You told me to do this and I really didn't want to do it, so therefore I'm going to stop it. No harm to me, but it doesn't end well for them. So this time around I was like how can I help people help themselves? I thought about all the lessons learned in the first pass with this and I was like well, what if I designed something that allow people to plug and play if you will, but it gets away from the traditional budget to where it's scenario-based. So people always want to know what if I spent this money? What would be the impact? Well, what else could I do with this money? And so it had to go beyond just the typical money in, money out.
Speaker 1:So I designed this expansive tool in Excel that touches on everything for the most part. And so you have your income and you have your expenses, but I created the different scenarios in the expenses so that people get to see what happens if. What happens if inflation goes up? What happens if I get demoted or I have to take a pay cut? What happens if my expenses go up and I have a family? What happens if? And so I have these different scenarios that people just plug in, and a lot of the stuff is automated, so that now, before you make a financial decision, you can actually plug in some numbers to see what the outcome could be. So it puts you in the ballpark to make a better or more sound decision.
Speaker 1:And so with that, you have people who have multiple jobs. What's the impact to that? So you have debt payoff. How can you view your debt payoff differently. And so I use a certain method that it works, because the average person they live check to check with a little bit above that.
Speaker 1:And so what this tool does is it allows them to create cash flow without having to do anything, but make some slight adjustments in how they're viewing their debt. So you can classify your debt into different category types, and then it tells you if your debt is good, bad or whatever it might be. And so if it's a good debt, why don't you put in all the extra money towards a good debt when it's not going to give you any value? And so now you readjust or reallocate your money towards the bad debt to get it off of the books faster. But what that does is it frees up cash flow. And so now, because you are living, check to check that additional $200, it comes in handy. And so you still pin up your debt. And so it has a lot of other features where you can manage your assets, you can set your savings goals, you can look at your retirements, your retirement withdrawal, early retirement. It even has the cost of living calculated in there.
Speaker 1:If Aline says, hey, I'm leaving city A to move to city B, ok, well, before you do, I'm just going to call you to move. What is the difference in salary that I should expect, expenses, blah, blah, blah. And so now you have all of that, and all of this is tied together so that if you plug it in one spot, it will show another spot at this applicable. And so now, once you go through all of this, now you have a full picture of your personal finances, and so you get to make these decisions. You can say well, I want to put this in because I'm embarrassed to see that number. Don't put it in right, but you've got to have a complete picture, but it's all you. Now.
Speaker 1:The beauty of all of this is that what I've learned is that People don't know where they are on the financial independence spectrum, right, so it's like maybe eight to 10, depending on how you want to view it. You know different levels to it, and so, like, for instance, you'll commonly hear people say I want to get into real estate. Right, as if that's an easy thing to get into and make money. Right, right, and so it doesn't matter, you know, if you live in Trick, the Check or a little bit above that or whatever. Right, you want to jump into something you're not too familiar with. But what happens is that you jump into these things and you really don't know too much about it, and you don't know where you can pull the money from to pay for a course and do a down payment, whatever it might be, and so you end up losing money.
Speaker 1:Well, part of that is because you don't know where you are on the spectrum. So let's just say, for instance, if you are on the spectrum, where you are, say, at financial reliance, and what that means is that you're depending on someone for some form of your income, if not all of it, right. And so you could be at a nine to five and your ability to make an ends meet. Or it could be where your income is a supplemental income and you're also depending on family for income right. But you are talking about dabbling into something, that's say, in the financial security realm, which is only assets and property or investments. Something has to give, and is usually your bank account, right.
Speaker 1:And so what I did was, you know, created an assessment based on this financial independence model, so that you answer a few questions and not let you know where you are on the spectrum, but also what it does is it walks you through not only where you are, but what you need to focus on to get out of this situation and onto the next level, right, and so now, with that it's, I've designed it so that I will be feeding you all the information that you need. So if you need to learn how to do whatever with your money, right, I'll have content on that. Right, if you need to be in a group, I can direct you to that. Whatever, right? So it's going to walk you through all the things that you need to do to get out of that. And so, combined with the tool, now you have a complete picture, right? And so that's where 48 am was born, and so where I came up with the name.
Speaker 1:Is that, and why I focus on people of color, is that you see this all the time and you hear this all the time. Where you know, you see where you see the article, where it says you know, you know black people are lagging behind, you know the white population by this percentage, you know with their finances, or you know there's greater poverty in the black community, blah, blah, blah, right, and I start to think why is this happening year after year after year, right, why is that gap widening so far to where it's so problematic that no one seems to have the answer? No, I'm not saying I have the answer, but I want to play a part in seeing if I can shrink that gap. And so 48 am is short for 40 acres of the mule, right, and so?
Speaker 1:Not sure if you've ever heard that before, right, but during slavery the government promised slaves that upon their release they would get 40 acres of the mule.
Speaker 1:And so if you go back and you know throughout history, you'll see that you know owning land, owning mules, you know growing crops. That was a way to generate financial independence, right, right. And so when you go back and you look at that in regards to where folks are today, it's tied because when you look at, say, your ancestors when they came up, through the 17th to 1800s, and if they owned land it was passed down to, you know future generations. That put you know current generations in a certain financial situation. Right, that's better than those who didn't. So for me, creating 40 am is that we're not getting the 48% of the mule, right, but you can create your own 40 acres of the mule just by improving your financial literacy, right, just being able to manage your money differently and better, and so I feel that this tool, this information, having access to capital, can put you on that path to only your 48% of the mule, whatever that's going to be. So that's the genesis of it and that's how we got here.
Speaker 3:I mean that's incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. It is so thoughtful. Look, I'm not surprised that this is thoughtful, right, because it's you and we worked with you in the days that you were a business analyst and you thought about these different scenarios, and I think it's so important for people to have those scenarios in mind versus like hey, can I borrow some money and they're not. You know, people aren't seeing the ramifications of it and there's obviously now I don't want to say a trend, but there's a push towards financial independence within the black community. We've seen it with a I don't know if I can say her name, but a very famous tennis player who's partnered up with a certain organization about a certain color kind of purse. So we'll leave it.
Speaker 2:I don't know why you can't say it. I don't know why I can't say it either. I feel like people should know about this. Sure. There's no reason we're not getting paid for it.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:This is not an ad.
Speaker 3:It's not sponsored, but Serena Williams has partnered with a company for financial independence called the purple purse I think is what it's called.
Speaker 3:So there's definitely that awakening of we've got to be, we've got to find our way to financial independence because nobody else is going to look out for us to do that right. And that's even I mean even if you look at generations that are coming out of college, I mean you look at this right, the housing market is bonkers, like you can't afford a house coming out of school unless you're, unless you're really super lucky or you've inherited it or something right. So most people are going into going to look at, you know, apartments with friends and things like that. That's only sustainable for so long. And you know, I think this is so important. I don't know, I don't know what your age, demographic is right, but I don't know if you see like younger people coming out saying like, hey, look, I could use a leg up until I get myself settled, or you know if it's, if it's wide ranging or things like that. But I would imagine this is like this is transformational.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the point that's really to have a transform people's lives.
Speaker 1:You know, and and and part of this. I you touched on the housing part of it.
Speaker 1:So, there's a tool that I have in here, where you know, you hear this argument where people say oh, if you rent, you throw away money. Right, and I disagree with that right, because not every situation let me throw away money, and so I designed this, this calculator that shows you if you plug it in, if you get your numbers, you know from a reliable source and plug these numbers in, it indicates whether you should rent or whether you should buy, right, it breaks it down for you. There's a reason why.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Right, so that, so that way you're well informed, versus saying, oh, let me, you know, borrow this down payment and get a house that I can barely afford. Right, Because you don't see the long term ramifications of that right, and so so we have the. I try to be as thoughtful as possible, whether you are just out of, you know, college, or if you are middle age, you know, or you're near retirement, you know where. I think this could help a lot of different people, regardless of what age range you're in, and it's just a matter of making sure that it's easy to understand and easy to use. And I think that's the biggest thing, because one thing I learned along the way is about financial trauma, right, and it didn't dawn on me until I was building this thing where how you engage with your family or those around you when they came to money will determine how you view it right.
Speaker 1:And so I remember growing up and I heard this, this phrase, so often, and it's just like you know, you say like, hey, how's it going? And somebody will say, oh, I'm just a poor black man trying to make it right and you didn't think anything of it, right? But but now when you start to like understand, like you hit this over and over, so that means that this person is struggling, he's poor and he's barely making it right and so, and so it doesn't dawn on you but that's just been planted right. And so now when you go home to like I'm gonna cut back on this, or we can't, you know, buy this, or we have to cancel this, whatever it might be right, You're not giving the full context, but you're seeing where, every time you turn around, you can't afford some right. So, to make it more real, I grew up with my grandpayers and they grew up in the Great Depression, right, my granddad hated things.
Speaker 1:Okay, right yeah everything was under the mattress, right, and so I understand, and so I didn't think it impacted me, right, until I got older, right, and I would always have money in the house. They just thought that everyone had money in the house right. Yeah, not that much money right.
Speaker 1:Right and so so my grandfather, he had this. This whole money doesn't grow on trees each. I'm not gonna give it to you, but I memorized it because I've heard it so often. And it's like, if you go to him and you like, hey, can I borrow $10? And it's like, oh, when does it grow on trees? I have to fix income, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Right, so now, when you put all this stuff together, you just see limitation, right, and it's like, oh, limitation, like, and everyone around you was saying this so now you have your first job out of high school or college. What do you think is about to happen? Right, so you don't have sound money principles, right, you're lacking in this financial literacy space. So you're going to end up in this space where, eventually, you will be a court. Right, you will have financial issues to where money is tight always, and so that doesn't matter if you get a raise or promotion or whatever, right, you have bad money habits, right, and so you're just gonna have more if you make more money. So you see this a lot in the black community, and so so me moving in this direction is geared towards transforming folks, transforming how they view and transforming their lives.
Speaker 1:Transforming, you know a lot of different things, and the part of this tool that that I built in, there's a time component to it, right, and the reason that's important because you can this all the time time is money. I disagree with that. Right Now you can, you can always get money back. You can never get your time back, right? So I need people to start thinking. You know about time differently and how you spend your time. So, if you understand where you are with the next from the financial spectrum, if you have sound financial principles, right Now you're seeing your time differently, differently, right? So am I spending my time wisely at this job? That's not paying me well, right, they're gonna go somewhere else. Do I have enough time to get a second job? And can the second job, you know, pay me enough to pay off ex debt? Right? You know, I always tell people like, if you have a second job or you're working overtime and you live off of that, you will forever have a need for overtime and you will forever have a second job. Right, because you can't, you can't not get off of that hamster wheel, right and so and so now you have a lot of people of color who are saying I want to start a business? Right, and that's very noble, right.
Speaker 1:Where's the time coming from? Where's it coming from? Right, because when you break it down, that's just keep everything. You know something 24 hours, eight for work, eight for sleep, eight for life Right. So if you're working overtime that's just say four hours a day, that's 12 hours you're gonna pull that extra time from somewhere sleep or life right.
Speaker 1:And so now things start to get a little hairy at this point. Right, because if not getting enough sleep, you got health issues. If you, if you're not spending the proper amount of time in life and life is with family, with friends, running errands, keeping your appointments, whatever things get out of control in that space, right. So there has to be a proper balance. So now this tool helps you look at time differently. Do I have enough time to start a business? If you do, great. Now let's move to the money side. Do I have enough money? No, Okay, great. So now you don't start a business, but you have time. So how can you get more money? Maybe get another job or maybe, you know, do something else. I don't know, but it forces you to now think differently, right. And so that's the whole transformative piece of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's incredible how much the mind and the concepts we have created and brought down from generations even right, like you're talking about, do impact us. What were we, I was, I mean, well, I had a whole conversation recently on generational trauma, but also on systemic trauma. Like there's just so much that plays a role in these stories we hear in our heads that are true, right, they are the truth, and if we don't also address that, then things don't actually ever change. I just, I think that is so often left out. I mean, look, I'm also I'm a math major, so, and you know, obviously worked in tech for a long time and I feel like sometimes it's like it's so it's just about the numbers. Like, if you just go to a CPA or whatever, it's just about the numbers.
Speaker 2:I feel like there's a whole conversation that is left out from this and you're bringing a really holistic approach to that understanding, which is such an amazing opportunity for people and a whole new way of really understanding themselves, understanding their families, understanding the systems that they live in. And then one of the things that I've been really focused on is how do we become those creators then in our own world, right, how do we then take that step into? Well, what do I want this to be? How, how I'm not just stuck in these patterns, now I am conscious, it is the forefront of my mind. What are the decisions I now make going forward to actually change that? And I just think that that's so much of what you're bringing into this, and I think it's just so incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I totally agree with that. You know, I just think that the numbers tell a story, right.
Speaker 1:And so what story are your numbers telling you? And I think for too long, people have not viewed their personal numbers in that manner, right, no one ever wants to say that they're broke or they're poor, right, so there's a stigma attached to it, but it's okay, right, it's okay, you are where you are and my goal is to get people to break that. Right, like, this is where you are, but it doesn't mean you have to stay there. So what story is your number telling you? Or your number's telling you? And I think this is going to be so important and it helps people embrace the present versus so many people of color that live in the future. Right, if I can just get this, if I can just flip that, if I can just, and it's like, yeah, but you're not laying the proper foundation, right, and that story just doesn't start with what you are Like I can talk about. It goes back, you know, a generation or two or three or whatever. Right, and so the goal is to really reach as many people as possible, but to be thoughtful about it. You know, like, I don't want this to be this thing where it's just like come on, come on, you know, but I want to be focused to where people understand that this is serious.
Speaker 1:Because you hear, in the black community, where you know, we talk about, like, building generational wealth, right? So? And I don't think that a lot of us understand what that really means and how much effort it takes to get to that point, and we think that we can get to a point of building that generational wealth in one generation, and most times, more times than not, that's not realistic, right. But it doesn't mean you can't get a foundation for the next generation to add on to that, right. If you know what your plan is and most of us don't have a plan, you know we just say, well, I'm just going to save, okay, that's great, but what else? Right. And so there are four ways, you know, to pretty much build wealth right, legal, right, legal ways to build wealth right.
Speaker 3:One is real estate.
Speaker 1:One is real estate, one is life insurance, the other is starting a business and the last one is investment. Right, just four ways, so it's not complicated, right? You have to understand just that basic thing to just move forward, right, and so just getting back to the basics and meeting people where they are and just come on from there, and also just correcting bad information, you know, just like I remember one of the people saying you're always going to have debt, so go ahead and max that credit card out.
Speaker 3:All right, right no.
Speaker 1:And you're like everyone has debt. Just go ahead and max out this $10,000 credit card that I don't have any way of paying back, you know. And it's just like, and it just goes on and on and it's and it's saying oh, that's good debt because it builds your credit. It may be, but that's not the whole picture, right? So yeah, it's just a lot of bad information that's floating around out there.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. And that's the other thing too. Is that you don't see, like it'll take you 84 years, if you make the minimum payment, to pay this off, right? You're not going to be there Like that's no fun, right? So it's just a wow yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember I'll say this quick little story. You know, in college they give everyone these credit cards. You know, you sign for this credit card and build your credit and it was like $500. Like you know, I'll pay this back Again, not realizing how much 500 is, and I don't have a means to pay it back. Right, you know so. But you figured something to come up, or you can figure it out, Right, and nothing ever came up, and so I maxed it out, and I maxed it out in one of the most embarrassing ways.
Speaker 1:I came home from a break and someone take my little brother shop, Right, you know. So we went to the store and I was like what do you want? He's like anything. I'm like, yeah, I can't get anything. I have a t-shirt, a graphic short, you know. I said you want shoes, yeah, I want shoes, I need graph shoes. And they were like sir, this car has been declined. I'm like, shh, I have money on this car. Can you swipe it again? Right, yeah, Just swipe it twice, bro. And it's still the same thing. And my brother cried.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:So that's when I realized like, oh, there's a limit to this, so fast forward, I'm buying my first house because I didn't pay it back, right, and because you know who's going to make me pay it back, right. So go to buy my first house and they pull credit and they're like hey, you have this credit card where you owe money. I'm like what credit card? And they told me what it was and I'm like, yes, $500. Nope, 1750. Right, 1750.
Speaker 2:I'm like no, it's a $500.
Speaker 1:Didn't even think about interest, right, and so, yeah, it's like paying it back. So again, no one told me about this Right, no one taught me this, no one in my family, no one at the school, no one Right. So, and I'm not lucky. So imagine, you know, people have it worse. So Hmm.
Speaker 2:I just want it's. It's so cool to hear all the different things and the continuous iteration of growth that you have through all of this and I think that's just amazing and wonderful. And I kind of want to just tap into your mind, maybe once a quarter now, to see where you're going, because I mean, it's just fascinating and amazing and I guarantee in another six months you're going to be doing something bigger, greater and more impactful, like I just think it's a wonderful gift you have. Is that something you've? Is that just a piece of you like how do you, how do you do that? You like I mean, I kind of do it also. So I'm like this is super fun and I see, I see you. But is that? Is that always sort of the way that you thought about things? Like I can see the impact that you also want to make and that doesn't just come from I don't know. That comes from something really deep within you too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny because I so my grandmother, you know, like all parents, they ask what it would be when you grow up. You know that type of thing. So I remember one day in my room they asked me that question like when you're going to do when you become an adult? I was like I'm not going to help people, you know. And she's like what does that mean? I'm not going to help people? Right, and that was my answer, right, and that always stuck with me.
Speaker 1:So, fast forward, I'm at this one job and start to my boss and we don't really do a relationship and she has the same question and this is, like you know, before I went to down this path and I just want to help people. I don't know, I don't know what it is, I don't know what my call about. She's going to help people and along the way I've always helped people, right. It was just, you know, helping with this, helping with that, whatever, right. And so she was like for future reference, you have to define what this help looks like, right. And so I didn't know how to define it, you know.
Speaker 1:So I struggle, you know, along the way, and then it hit me right where the help I want to give people. I want to, you know, put them in a better situation in life, right, whether it's, you know, having a conversation, you know, helping them financially, you know, helping them find a job or whatever it might be. I just want to see people get to a better place, to where that burden that they were carrying just, you know, disappears. You know. And so numbers I can do numbers all day, right, and so I had to figure out how can I leverage my strengths, my talents, to help people in a dynamic way that lessens their burden, you know.
Speaker 1:And so this is just one of one of the things, and you know, and this is why you know, where I am now working in government appeals to me so much, right, you know where I'm helping people, even though I'm on the backside of things. I'm in transformation, right, I'm doing these amazing projects, but I see the impact that it has in the lives of everyday people. I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool, right, and so, you know, that's why it's just so fulfilling to just kind of be in this role and doing what I'm doing. You know, which I'm passionate about, which is like transformation, modernization, process improvement, things like that, right, so, so, yes, it's all you know tied together can I?
Speaker 2:just I just want to say something really quickly here and you all can disagree with me and that's very fine, that, boss, I just call bullshit on some of that. I, you know, everyone's like everyone's. You know you have to define what it is, what it is. What exactly is that you want? What's the? What is the one position that you're going to be for the rest of your life? Like you should be aiming at that, like no, I don't agree with that at all, because sometimes it takes life experiences to go through to be able to understand and define that later on. I think it takes your path to define the path as as you move along it. Sorry, I just I just get so tired of people being like, especially with young people, you're like we should know. Like, what are you aiming for? I don't know yet, like I don't even know. I haven't even like lived life enough to know that. Like, leave that open for me a little bit right so.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to acquire.
Speaker 3:Let the church say amen yeah no, I agree with that same person would have said but let's think outside the box.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, but you want me to be in a box, but I got you, okay, cool exactly yeah yeah, no, I totally agree with that, because this is gonna sound crazy the world is this big right. There's a lot of people, a lot of opportunity, a lot of things to explore, a lot of things to see and to say I'm gonna be this one thing right here, from the time I realized I want to be that thing until the time I die. Right, that one thing right now, that's what you really want and you, you're short have that right but the vast majority of us, it doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 1:Right, like, how many times have we been in a working environment where we talk to people about, hey, what's your degree in? And here we are working for an insurance company? Right, that's just like how do we get here? Right, yeah, my degree is in mathematics, my degree is in you know whatever. Right, it's just like, yeah, but we're, we're an insurance you know, so I just think that that's what makes life so great.
Speaker 1:You know where you wake up and you say you know what? I'm gonna quit this insurance job. I'm gonna do this thing over here, like start a part of the podcast, right and so, and no one saw that one come in. And this is when everyone calls you crazy, like you must be crazy. We know about starting the podcast, who's doing that now, and it's just right exactly. But before you know, it is open up doors and it's taken off or whatever it might be, or it might even teach you about yourself, right, but that's the good life, you know, you did you down one road and, like this other road looks pretty interesting to go over here, right, and just do it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah and I mean I talked. Sorry, go on, cheryl, you go ahead you guys.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I was gonna say you know, we. I feel like a lot of well again. I work in the leadership space too. A lot of leaders lead in a an industrial revolution when we are living in the AI revolution. It's a completely different world and you are not just going to follow one ladder to whatever it is like. New is continuously opening up and different ways of exploring business and the world change constantly and to have that expectation of somebody is just living in a very old way of of understanding business in my perspective. Yep.
Speaker 3:I agree, okay, so I want to talk Dwayne math a little bit. Right, because you broke. You broke up life into three eight hour segments, right. So there's, you know, we hear about it all the time there's boy math, there's girl math, there's dog math, there's cat math but now there's Dwayne math, right, so Dwayne math also includes eight hours of life.
Speaker 3:So how do you spend that portion of the math, dwayne? Because we talked a little bit about hiking, we talked a little bit about photography, but, um, like what, what is your ideal? Eight hours of life, like, what does that look like?
Speaker 1:no man now yeah. I'll be 50 this year, so I have to preserve my limbs, you know, and so I'm spending time in, you know, physical therapy trying to get my body back realign. Uh, going to the chiropractor. So it's like, yeah, sometimes getting all hurts, you know so uh, so, but yeah, so I'm doing that.
Speaker 1:But, um, um, working on this business, um, you know, I'll try to go hiking here and there when I can. Um, I mentor a few people, which I really enjoy, and so that takes quite a bit of my time. Um, you know, learning about a few different things, so it just depends. You know, like, whatever free time I have, it's, you know, you know working, you know family, and then, you know, working on this business and whatever other free time I have, it's. You know I have to be very smart about that and, plus, it just depends on if I even feel like it, and I think that's one of the the the beautiful things of getting older. I don't feel like doing anything. Who's gonna make me right? Right, just take a nap today, and you know that's my day, you know so so yes, it just depends and you know, um, like I said, I'm gonna, you know, get back to hiking this year.
Speaker 1:You might really get back into it, and that's one thing I do miss, um you know, since I've injured my back and all that fun stuff, you know. So I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
Speaker 3:Where's your favorite place to hike?
Speaker 1:Oh man, the Pacific Northwest actually.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say you should come out here, I live in Spokane. Well, I'll cut that out. I live in Spokane, so like you should, oh nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Trust me, I wouldn't get back out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it out there.
Speaker 2:I mean Cuddy Olympics and the Cascades, and I mean you can hit up there, Rocky like it's just incredible. Have you gone to the hoe Like anyway?
Speaker 1:sorry, there's just so much, no, no, go ahead. Yeah, no, I agree, like your excitement is how I feel about it.
Speaker 3:It is just.
Speaker 1:I tell people all the time, like, if you enjoy the outdoors and you like natural raw beauty, there's nothing coming close to Pacific Northwest. It is just amazing. And you're out on the Eastern part. I was out on the Western part, that's right, that's right, that's right. Seattle, yeah, in a little town called Stilicum. Washington, yeah, around the Puget Sound. That was amazing because where I lived at the time it was like right on the street from the Puget Sound and so every winter the seals would come in and eat themselves on the shore, and it was nice on the daytime, then night they'll still start to part. This was definitely so, but overall that's been my favorite place to hike. Texas comes in a close second. I was shocked that they have some good trails out in Texas. I discovered a dinosaur footprint out in Texas, oh cool. So, yeah, yep, I was up on this ridge and I happened to look down and like what is that Right? So I hike all the way down and splash out the water and lo and behold, a dinosaur footprint.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was pretty cool. That's so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So now my goal is to hike Like what is that? The Oregon Trail.
Speaker 2:Oh, that'd be cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to build the courage for that one.
Speaker 2:Sure, don't get this into a lot.
Speaker 1:Sorry, yeah.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I couldn't resist. You know you're right. Oh my goodness, See, Cheryl now you need to come out.
Speaker 2:You have to come out to the.
Speaker 1:Pacific.
Speaker 2:Northwest because it's totally worth it and there's just so many cool places. We actually my sister's bachelorette party last year because we're in our late 30s, not in our 20s anymore for bachelorette parties we went to Mount Rainier National Park and stayed there and did some hiking, so it was amazing. That's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I got this picture of Mount Rainier. I was out hiking. It was freezing cold. I don't know what I was hiking that day, but it's time to give it a go. And so Mount Rainier is in the background and there's this bridge that at the right angle. If you look at it, it looks like the bridge is going directly into Mount Rainier, and so I was like, let me go back and get the camera and get this picture. And so I had to walk across this bridge and it was like a thin layer of ice and I didn't see it. And I go back and, legs up in the air, my hand is clutching the rail. Oh no, I'm probably sure my hand pretty still on that wooden rail because I squeezed it so hard.
Speaker 1:Luckily, I didn't fall completely down, but I went back and got the camera and took the picture and I came out quite amazing. So I entered into this contest and it came in second or third. Oh, wow, awesome, yeah, so I guess it was all worth it.
Speaker 2:Totally, yeah, exactly. Oh, my gosh. Well, you let me know if you're coming out, because I love to yeah, for sure, for sure, go hiking.
Speaker 1:Actually, I would take a trip out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went hiking up, was it Cougar Mountain to go paragliding off the side of it? So that was Cheryl, sorry, but then you see, I saw the Olympics, I saw the Cascades. It was like a clear enough day to see Rainier. It was just incredible.
Speaker 1:That's a hard pass for me. That's a hard pass, I will never do it again.
Speaker 2:Never do it again. Always want to have done it once.
Speaker 2:So that's what I did, Anyway, but the hike you hike up to it and stuff too. There's a lot of contemplation that goes on and potentially turning back, but still made it up to the top. So anyway, it was wonderful. So, Dwayne, we are already hitting the hour here which, for us, this just happens. It's so much fun talking with people. What we love for people to do is be able to find you. So what is the best place that, if they're looking to get in contact with you with the work that you're doing, or just to connect to learn more, where should they go?
Speaker 1:I am only on LinkedIn, so you can find me under my name D-E-W-A-Y-N-E-G-O-R-D-O-N. So there's plenty of Dwayne Gordon's out there. So find the one that works for the city of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3:There you go, fair enough, oh my goodness, I really I love your life post where we worked together, and I wish you nothing but the best and continue successes. I appreciate that you and Eileen loved to hike. As I've told people Last year, I do one thing that scares me every year and last year I did a couple of things that scared me. This one was doing a 5K mud run.
Speaker 1:Oh nice.
Speaker 3:You have to understand that the longest walk I've taken in three years was down to my mailbox and back. So this was absolutely bananas. I mean, I was caked in mud, I was tired, and they tell you they're like if you raise your hands in the air, we think you're dancing. Do this Like when you cross your arms? And about mile one in my brain, my brain was going cross the arms, man cross the arms, and I just I so appreciate that you found joy in hiking and finding that particular piece peaceful to you. So I'm so glad that it's not all about the math and that your Dwayne math includes living life.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, you have to have that balance For sure, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, folks, we'll listen again. Reach out to Dwayne Wharton on LinkedIn and we'll put it into our socials, just so that people have it there. But on behalf of my lovely co-host, eileen Grimes, and me, cheryl Kansas-Hafio, this closes out our episode of you. Only Go Once, dwayne. It was a pleasure, thank you, thank you, I really enjoyed it. It was so awesome. And then, folks, until next time. We'll talk to you later, bye.
